I thought it would be good, but Miro vs. Kingston absolutely exceeded my expectations. An incredibly well-executed Hoss fight with great psychology and an excellent finish.

Moxley vs. Kojima was even more stiff than I was anticipating. And I've even more hyped for the Minoru match. That was also set up perfectly.

>Baker-Statlander was really good. The right wrestler won, but
>they established Kris as nearly indestructible and the crowd
>really liked her, which surprised me given how popular Baker
>is. Britt even got some boos when she was giving the boot to
>Kris in the corner.

I can see Statlander winning the title in the future. And she was crazy over with the crowd. I was surprised to hear some of those boos for Britt, which showed that she worked the match well.

>The tag title match was incredible. I’m biased obviously,
>but I thought it was match of the night. Once I saw the Lucha
>Bros entrance, I knew they had to win. Been following these
>guys since Lucha Underground and I’m so happy for them.
>Penta’s gear was sick too. Great moment with Penta
>protecting Fenix from the thumbtack kick. Plus we got the
>safest spot Fenix could’ve done from the top of the cage.
>Hope Penta’s kids aren’t traumatized after getting a
>bloody hug from him!

That was the match of the next. Probably the second best match I've seen all year. They hit the right spots, made things look appropriately grim for Fenix and Penta, and then wrapped it all up the way they need to (though they could have given a few more shots to the Bucks with the spiked shoe). And since a lot of the tag teams are finally coming back from injury and other setbacks, now's the perfect time for AEW's tag division to be revitalized. Give me the Lucha Bros. fighting every week.


>I hated the battle royale until it got down to the last few
>wrestlers, then it saved itself. This format needs to go
>though. You’re trying to have 5 people enter in succession
>and have a moment with the crowd, but they can’t really make
>an impression with another person entering seconds later.
>It’s a mess. That being said, Ruby was over as hell and I
>think her and Rosa will eventually become a tag team, which
>would be great.

Eh, I liked it. It didn't overstay it's welcome, and the people who clearly had no chance were eliminated quickly (aside from the Bunny). But Ruby coming in was a great moment, and the finish kept Thunder Rosa strong.

>I thought this was the perfect way to book a Jericho win. You
>give the crowd what they want and MJF gets to still claim
>victory. That’s all a heel needs really. I loved MJF
>trolling people with the countdown too.

Man, that Countdown video was God-level trolling. One of the homies I was watching with gave him a standing ovation for. And while I usually roll my eyes at Dusty finishes, it didn't feel cheap here. Only thing I thought should have happened, but didn't, was Jericho somehow getting the ring from Aubrey and clocking MJF with it.

>I don’t even think Punk-Darby completely lived up to the
>hype (it was close), but it was still very entertaining.

Punk did look a bit rusty, but he did enough to pull it off. And he did sorta wrestle like a heel for chunks of the match too.

>Loved learning about the references to Bret vs. 1-2-3 afterward.
>It’s a testament to the quality of the rest of the show that
>this wasn’t even a highlight for me.

Huh, I'm not up on this. Have to read about the references.

>I blacked out during Big Show vs. QT. I actually thought Bryan
>might debut here to beat the shit out of both of them and save
>the crowd from this.

At under three minutes it was painless. I expected it to be the cool down match after the tag team title match. One of my other homies also suspected that it was going to be a switch wit Bryan debuting there as well.

>Kenny-Christian was better than I was expecting. I’m not a
>huge Christian fan, but it still somehow had a big fight feel.
>The double debut was expertly pulled off. Just brilliant
>stuff.

Very, very good match and also better than I expected. And of course the last 10 minutes of the show overall were great.